the boys
were behaving, found time to linger till the little party was well
started to the great improvement of the lads' manners.

"It is customary, Carol, to serve the ladies first," she admonished when
Carol made a dive for a coveted dainty ahead of the others.

And when the sugar mysteriously disappeared into Ernest's pocket, she
picked up the pie without comment and started for the house. The sugar
was immediately restored and order reigned during the rest of the meal.
The boys appreciated the girls' truck the more because their own cooking
had hardly been a success. The potatoes were half done and the apples
tasted alarmingly of ashes. The moment the last morsel had vanished the
boys cleared out for the ball field and the little girls looked
longingly after them, as they surveyed the messy dishes.

"Let's leave them and go swing," suggested Katy.

Chicken Little sighed.

"Mother'd never let me use them again if I didn't clean them up and put
them away."

"Well," said Katy, "I'll take my things home, but I don't think I ought
to help you wash yours."

"Why, Katy Halford, you asked me to use them!"

"Never mind, Jane, I'll help you. Katy can just go off if she wants to.
'Twon't take long and I love to wipe," said peacemaker Gertie avoiding a
storm.

Katy thought better of deserting and the work was soon done in their
very best manner, which, however, did not include washing the inside of
the very sticky sugar bowl or gathering up the remains of the impossible
potatoes. But Alice saved the day by attending to these small details
and Chicken Little was free to worry over the hated patchwork.

"Wisht I could stay out here in the sun for always," she sighed.

"Huh, I don't. There wouldn't be any coasting or skating or candy pulls
or----"

"Well, I wisht there wasn't any sewing."

"You don't either. Where'd you get any dresses or hats, Jane Morton?"
retorted practical Katy.

"Feathers might be nice," put in Gertie, who loved birds.

"Well, I shouldn't want my clothes fastened on so I couldn't get them
off at night," announced Katy decidedly. "And if you were a bird you
couldn't read books or play dolls."

"Well," Chicken Little replied unwilling to concede the point entirely,
"snakes can slip their skins right off--my father said so--and I don't
see why birds couldn't--anyway, I wish little girls didn't have to learn
to sew, so there!"

"I don't mind sewing but I hate arithmetic," said Gertie.

"P